Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2015

Using the Power of Film to Make a Difference

The Human Rights Watch Film Festival will come to San Diego for its fifth year with screenings scheduled at the Museum of Photographic Arts from January 22 through January 25, 2015. The Human Rights Watch Film Festival creates a forum for courageous individuals on both sides of the lens to empower audiences with the knowledge that personal commitment can make a difference. The film festival brings to life human rights abuses through storytelling in a way that challenges each individual to empathize and demand justice for all people.

TICKETS: Festival passes are available for purchase and cover admission to all six festival films. Festival passes are $15 for MOPA Members, $25 for students, seniors and military service members, and $35 for the public. Single screening tickets are $4 for MOPA Members, $6 for students, seniors and military service members, and $8 for the public. Please select a film to purchase tickets.

Sepideh is a young Iranian woman who dares to dream of a future as an astronaut. As we follow Sepideh, it becomes clear just how at odds her dreams are with her current reality and the expectations of those around her.

Former US Navy SEAL Chris Beck embarks on a new mission as Kristin Beck. Kristin’s journey in search of the American ideals that she protected –life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – have a whole new meaning as she lives her life truthfully as a transgender woman.

One hot August night in 2006 in New York’s Greenwich Village, a group of young African-American lesbian friends are violently and sexually threatened by an older man. They defend themselves and a fight begins that draws in strangers on the street. Through this act, and their audacity to claim innocence in the courtroom, these young women became known as The New Jersey 4.

Filmed between August 2011 and August 2013, Return to Homs is a remarkably intimate portrait of a group of young revolutionaries in the city of Homs in western Syria. They dream of their country being free from President Bashar al-Assad and fight for justice through peaceful demonstrations.

The Homestretch follows three homeless teens as they fight to stay in school, graduate, and build a future. Each of these smart, ambitious teenagers - Roque, Kasey and Anthony - will surprise, inspire, and challenge audiences to rethink stereotypes of homelessness as they work to complete their education while facing the trauma of being alone and abandoned at an early age.